Jan Mankes artwork • prints & multiples • previously for sale A crow, watching a mosquito
Jan Mankes
Meppel 1889-1920 Eerbeek
1889-1920
A crow, watching a mosquito
woodcut on coloured Japanese paper 11.8 x 10.2 cm, signed w mon in the block and l.r. in full (in pencil and executed in 1918
Literature: Alb. Plasschaert, Just Havelaar, 'Jan Mankes', Wassenaar 1927, pag. 60; A. Mankes-Zernike, R.N. Roland Holst, 'Jan Mankes', Wassenaar 1928, pag. 63; J.R. de Groot, 'Jan Mankes', Leeuwarden 1979, pag. 30; H.F. Bruyel-Van der Palm e.a., 'Jan Mankes, schilderijen, tekeningen en grafiek', Utrecht 1989, pag. 107 en pag. 141; Thom Mercuur, Fronique Oosterhof, 'Woudsterweg. De Friese jaren van Jan Mankes (1909-1915)', Heerenveen 2007, afb. pag. 117 (van een ander exemplaar); Alied Ottevanger e.a., 'Jan Mankes 1889-1920', Zwolle/Assen/Spanbroek/Arnhem 2007, pag. 129 en pag. 225, cat.nr. Gh 19; Jan de Lange, 'Jan Mankes. Een kunstenaarsleven in brieven', Den Haag/Zwolle 2013, pag. 580, 623, 625, 721.
Jan Mankes, who was already dead from tuberculosis at the age of thirty-one, was a solitary individual in Dutch art. In 1903 he began working as an apprentice at a Delft stained-glass atelier but in 1908 chose to be a full-time artist instead. He withdrew to his parental home in the Friesian countryside, where he created small, finely painted works of landscapes, people, animals and flowers. His work is characterised by an immense restraint and stillness. It has a dreamlike quality, is vaguely symbolic and, above all, delicate.
© Simonis & Buunk